In my attempts to spend a little more time with the Lord, I have started reading books by women of faith. I suppose I could read the Bible, but I like it through different lenses and usually with some humor.
Rachel Heald Evans is FUNNY! She died very young and it is a tragedy, both for her loved ones and for anyone who appreciates unique Biblical perspectives on women in modern life.
She spent a year focusing on different scriptural admonitions for women and carrying them out in spite of the fact that she lived in the south in the early 21st century. She deals with not cutting her hair, keeping her head covered, making garments, cooking (not her thing), rising early (REALLY not her thing) and being submissive to her master, I mean her husband. Yep, she even sleeps in a tent for her special lady time.
She does all this with a sense of fun, but also a sense of respect for the Biblical woman who had to take this seriously. At no point did I feel like I was being lectured, but I learned a lot. I plan to read more of her books, but I intend to parse them out because they are precious and too, too few.
A colleague recommended Tish Harrison Warren when I mentioned I had just finished AYoBW and wanted to read more female theologians. It was, as they say, a blessing. Warren isn't as wholeheartedly funny as Evans, but she has the same wry tone, even as she discusses subjects that are clearly divine to her.
This book centers on different aspects of the everyday and draws spiritual parallels to these common experiences. She takes routine things and turns them into ways of seeing God in the mundane. I am currently reading her new book - What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience - and while I am not in a particularly weary land myself, I am finding it nearly as compelling.
